The present disclosure relates generally to a document management system and method.
Many documents have become a mixture, or a composite, of differentially formatted parts. Composite documents may be presented to a user by specialized software as one editable, browsable, approvable, playable document. Different parts are combined together through various serialization mechanisms, e.g., java jar-archive, HP dlf, etc. One example of a composite document is a document-based proposal, including product jpeg-images, a marketing way-clip, a ppt-presentation and an xsl-spreadsheet with financial details.
In many instances, multiple workflow participants contribute to different parts of composite documents with different access levels. It may also be desirable or necessary, in some instances, to export a composite document outside of a secured environment or between differently-secured environments, and then, after the document is updated over a set/sequence of workflow steps, re-import the document back into the secured environment or the differently-secured environment. When publicly-posted composite documents are distributed over non-secure channels, documents may inadvertently become lost (i.e., never delivered to the intended recipient) or be delivered in non-authentic form.